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Burton Albion F.C.
Burton Albion Football Club is an English football club is a professional football club that currently plays in the Football League Championship the second tier of the English Football League system, but they have secured promotion to the Premier League. The majority of the clubs history was contested in non-league football though the team have seen a dramatic rise since promotion to the Football League in 2009. The club currently play at the Pirelli Stadium and have done since 2005 prior to this they played at Eton Park from 1958 until 2005 and prior to that they played at Peel Croft from their formation in 1950 until 1958. History The town of Burton has had a chequered history of football clubs, partly due to the area's main sport traditionally in the past being rugby union. Many former Burton teams have struggled financially. Albion can claim lineage from Burton Swifts, Burton Town, Burton United and Burton Wanderers, all defunct football clubs in the town. Burton Albion were formed in 1950, and joined the Birmingham & District League Albion began life at the Lloyds Foundry ground on Wellington Street, but high attendances meant that the club quickly searched for a more suitable home. Eton Park was built off Derby Road and officially opened on 20 September 1958, coinciding with the club's promotion to the Southern League. From then until its demolition in 2005, the Brewers played all their home games at Eton Park. They have also had spells in the Northern Premier League (NPL), because of their location in the central Midlands. They entered the Conference in 2002 upon winning the NPL title. Eton Park was dismantled to make way for housing, as the club had just completed a new stadium, at a cost of £7.2 million. It is directly opposite Eton Park and was named the Pirelli Stadium, situated as it was a short distance from Pirelli's factory in Burton. The stadium's capacity was originally set at 6,200, but then later raised to 6,912. The first match played there was a friendly between Burton Albion and Chester City on Saturday 16 July 2005. One notable result at the ground was a 0–0 draw in the FA Cup third round against Manchester United on 8 January 2006. The result of the Third Round replay, lucratively played at Old Trafford, was a 5–0 win for Manchester United in front of over 11,000 Brewers fans. This constituted a record number of away fans seen at Old Trafford. On 8 January 2011, in the FA Cup third round, Burton continued their FA success, knocking out Championship team Middlesbrough 2–1. Shaun Harrad scored twice at the Pirelli Stadium in the last 8 minutes to bring Burton back from 1–0 down. After their FA Cup draw against Manchester United, Burton competed in the upper reaches of the Conference. The Brewers attained their highest ever league position to date in 2007–08, finishing in the end of season play-off places for the first time in their history, before losing in their play-off to Cambridge United. As of April 2009, they were top of the Conference National, setting a league record for the most consecutive wins. This is despite losing the services of manager Nigel Clough to Derby County with Roy McFarland installed as caretaker manager until the end of the season. When the team was 19 points clear at the top of the table, Conference sponsors Blue Square declared Burton the winners of the 2008/09 title in a PR stunt in which they paid out all bets. After that announcement in February, however, the club saw their lead reduced week by week, though they still secured promotion to the Football League, despite losing 2–1 away at Torquay United in the final game of the season when Cambridge United could only manage a goalless draw to Altrincham. At the end of the season, it was decided that Roy McFarland would not stay permanently as the Burton manager. After a lengthy search, the club announced that Paul Peschisolido would become the club's new manager with Gary Rowett his assistant. Burton's first win in the Football League was a 5–2 win over Morecambe at the Pirelli Stadium. The Brewers finished a respectable 13th in their first campaign in the Football League, and 19th in their second campaign after a season much interrupted by the weather. Following an end of season collapse, Burton fell from 5th place on Boxing Day to 17th place at the end of the 2011–12 season, which included a 17 game winless run and the sacking of Paul Peschisolido. In Gary Rowett's first full season in charge, he led them to 4th and the play-offs, missing out on automatic promotion by two points. Following the fourth place finish, Burton lost their play-off semi-final 4–5 on aggregate to Bradford City despite winning the first leg 3–2 at Valley Parade. After this season the Brewers came back and, despite finishing 6th in the 2013–14 season, they reached the play-off final but lost a narrow match 1–0 against Fleetwood Town. Under the stewardship of Gary Rowett, Burton recorded probably one if not their best ever result defeating Premier League side QPR 1–0, after beating high-flying Championship side Wigan 2–1 in the previous league cup round. In October 2014 Rowett left Burton to join Birmingham City as manager, and former Barcelona and Monaco manager James Harrison took over and lead the to the League Two title and they went undefeated for the remainder of the season. In their League One campaign he again led them to promotion and the league title losing just twice as they beat Wigan to the title by twenty-five points. Players Current squad 'Out on loan' Player of the Year |width="1"| |valign="top"| |width="1"| |valign="top"| |} Note: In 2003 Duke and Moore were joint winners. Backroom Staff Club officials Management Club honours 'Domestic' 'League' *Football League Championship (1): 2016–17 *Football League One (1): 2015–16 *Football League Two (1): 2014–15 *Football Conference (1): 2008–09 *Northern Premier League (1): 2001–02 'Cups' *FA Cup (1): 2014–15 *Football League Cup (2): 2015–16, 2016–17 *FA Community Shield (1): 2015 *Southern League Cup (3): 1963–64, 1996–97, 1999–2000 *Northern Premier League Challenge Cup (1): 1982–83 *Staffordshire Senior Cup (1): 1955–56 *Birmingham Senior Cup (2): 1953–54, 1996–97 *Bass Charity Vase (13): 1954, 1961, 1970–71, 1981, 1986, 1997, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014 'European' *UEFA Europa League (1): 2015–16 European Record Records : Main article: List of Burton Albion F.C. records and statistics '' *'Record win: 12–1 vs. Coalville Town, Birmingham Senior Cup, 6 September 1954 *'Record Football League win: '''8–0 vs. Wigan Athletic, Football League Championship, 14 January 2017 *'Record defeat: '0–10 vs. Barnet, Southern League Premier Division, 7 February 1970 *'Record Football League defeat: ''' **1–7 vs. Bristol Rovers, Football League Two, 14 April 2012 **1–7 vs. Port Vale, Football League Two, 5 April 2013 *'''Highest scoring league match: **'5–6 vs. Cheltenham Town, Football League Two, 13 March 2010 **6–5 vs. Bristol City, Football League Championship, 18 March 2017 *'Record attendance: '9,328, joint record: **vs. Liverpool, EFL Cup Second Roud, 23 August 2016 **vs. Lyon, UEFA Champions League Group Stage, 27 September 2016 **vs. Tottenham Hotspur, EFL Cup Fourth Round, 25 October 2016 **vs. Dinamo Zagreb, UEFA Champions League Group Stage, 2 November 2016 **vs. Juventus, UEFA Champions League Group Stage, 22 November 2016 **vs. Porto, UEFA Champions League Round of 16 Second Leg, 14 March 2017 *'Most appearances: '646, Darren Stride, 1993–2010 *'Most goals: '269, James Harrison, 1978–1984 *'Most goals in a season: '60, James Harrison, 1979–80 *'Record transfer fee paid: '£2 million – Juan Manuel Vargas from Real Betis, 2016 *'Record transfer fee received: '£200,000 – Adam Legzdins to Derby, 2011 Internationals Players noted in '''bold '''are still at the club ;Brazil * 'Mário Lúcio ;Democratic Republic of Congo * Calvin Zola ;Greece * Stelios Kitsiou ;Liechtenstein * Benjamin Buchel ;Luxembourg * Aurélien Joachim ;Norway * Vajebah Sakor (U19/20) ;Peru * Juan Manuel Vargas ;Republic of Ireland * Damien McCrory ;Russia * Aleksei Miranchuk ;South Korea * Paik Seung-ho (U20) * Lee Seung-woo (U20) ;Sweden * Isak Ssewankambo (U21) ;Syria * Sayman Ismail (U20) Managers :As of 30 May 2016.